Boys Defeat Exeter and St. Paul’s

By Cedric Elkouh

Noah Ward ’17 shattered the 11th Grade Class Discus Record and came within six inches of the school record with a throw of 167 feet and ten inches as Andover Boys Track & Field defeated Phillips Exeter Academy and St. Paul’s 78-57-42, respectively. The Saturday before, Andover traveled to Deerfield to compete in the annual Hunt Relays, an unscored meet with multiple relay and team events.

Wednesday’s meet at St. Paul’s capped off a strong week of hard training. Andover used the meet as an opportunity to gain valuable experience. In an email to The Phillipian, Sam Tobin ’18, who finished the 3000 Meter in ten minutes and 1.33 seconds, said, “[Wednesday] was tough for everyone just because we only had a few days to recover from Saturday… we treated [the meet] like a workout, and a lot of kids were running in unfamiliar events.”

Ralph Skinner ’16, who won the 400 Meter at St. Paul’s with a time of 50.77 seconds, wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “It was nice to get back to the familiarity of dual/tri-meet competition after Saturday’s exciting relay meet.”

On Saturday, The Hunt Relays provided Andover with the chance to face off against league competition in a low-consequence environment. While official team scores were not kept, the individual events were scored. Andover had particular success in Javelin, which came in first place with a combined throwing distance of 432 feet and 1 inch, and in the Boys Junior 4×200 Relay, which set a new course record in 1 minute and 40.4 seconds.

Javelin Coach Richard Gorham wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “Highlights of the year so far have included… this past weekend when we placed first as a boy’s Jav team at the Hunt Relays.”

Andover also had strong second place finishes led by Ward at the Hunt Relays in Shot-Put and Discus, with combined distances of 130 feet and 9.75 inches and 352 feet and 1 inch, respectively.

In addition to Andover’s strong performances in the field, Holden Ringer ’16 won the 3000 Meter at St. Paul’s in 9 minutes and 28.59 seconds, and David Onabanjo ’18 came in first place during the 200 Meter with a time of 23.82 seconds.

Post-Graduate Brad Schlosser ’16, who jumped 20 feet and 4.75 inches to capture first place in Long Jump on Wednesday, commented on the important role that the Hunt Relays play in helping the team prepare for Interschols. He said, “The good thing about the Hunt Relays is that it is more team-oriented, so you get a better team feel and you get more focus on relays… having that time to prepare for a relay meet definitely gives you more time to fine-tune your handoffs before Interschols.”

Andover looks to maintain its winning ways when it competes against Loomis Chaffee, Northfield Mount Hermon, and Avon Old Farms on May 7.